Shane Hurlbut, ASC Delivers

Director of Photography Shane Hurlbut, ASC was at it again sharing his amazing shooting knowledge at the Canon booth at the NAB Show in Las Vegas, NV.

As usual his presentation was informative and attention grabbing. Hurlbut recently shot the fast-paced-action-film Need for Speed. According to Hurlbut the game plan for shooting the film was all about “Immersing an audience with a cutting style and high octane motion.”

“I think it was week four in pre-production and they came to me and had a schedule cut from 80 days to 67,” says Hurlbut. “So 13 days taken out of the schedule. Which I already thought was pretty insane with that we had to deliver. I remember walking into the producers office looking at him square in the face and saying ‘so this 67 thing is real?’ and he said ‘yep.’”

Hurlbut knew spot on what had to be done. “The only way we can pull this off is with a shit ton of cameras,” said Hurlbut. “And [the producer] asked ‘what’s a shit ton of cameras to you? I say 50! And [the producer] says ‘Oh. My. God.’”

In the end the production ended up with a 50 camera package including 15 Canon C500’s, 4 ARRI Alexa’s, 11 Canon 1DC’s and 20 GoPro Hero 3’s. “It was the only way I was able to do what [Scott Waugh’s] vision was,” says Hurlbut. “And the only way to do that was to divide and concur.”

Hurlbut is currently at the helm of his own blog series in which he is able to share in-depth details about how he shoots, as well as, giving professional advice to filmmakers. You can find the blog at: http://www.hurlbutvisuals.com/blog/